


The End of All Things

by dirtygsanchez



Series: Pyramid-Scheme [6]
Category: Gravity Falls, Rick and Morty
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-31 00:59:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10888563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dirtygsanchez/pseuds/dirtygsanchez
Summary: Pyramid-Scheme SeriesThis a turn-about Roleplay fiction originally written on tumblr between @bill-rick (Bill Cipher now inhabiting a Rick Sanchez body) and @evilgsanchez ('Evil' Rick Sanchez). Through roleplay we have built up a 40 year relationship for the pair and this compiled fiction is set some time after the fiction entitled "After the Storm."In the months following their altercation, Bill proposes to his other lover and arranges the adoption of a child. Evil Rick struggles badly with this and eventually tells Bill they shouldn't see each other any longer.This thread takes place after Evil Rick had announced to Bill he never wishes to see him again.





	The End of All Things

**The end of all things.**

Bill pulled his knees into his chest, looking up into the moonlit night from the boulder he was perched upon and listening to the ripple of the lake tide. It wasn’t as if he needed to go far away to find solace. But in the state he was in- running nose, tears welling in his eyes and refusing to yield, sometimes to the point where they blurred his vision- he didn’t want anyone to see him.

The demon couldn’t remember a time he had felt this weak….This  _human_ , if anything. His eyes fixed onto his reflection in the water below, glaring at the bright pools of amber that seemed to watch him, judge him.

_Four trillion years. Four trillion years and you can take over entire populations and nearly bring about the end of the world, but you can’t keep a fucking 40 year old friendship alive. You couldn’t just fucking control yourself._

He drew in a shaky breath, his mind flipping through images of the past- New Orleans, Vegas, breakfast in the dead of night, bar fights that became what were nearly full blown battles, holding each other up as they stumbled through empty city streets bent out on whatever substance they had chosen to abuse that night- all happy memories that just rubbed salt into the wound.

 It was happening again. He was fucking up- Just like he had when he arrived in a blinded rage with the baseball bat, and just like he was now.

_I just got him back. **I’m not losing him again.**_

The demon swiped away what was left of the wetness on his cheeks and withdrew the portal gun, stepping through the small void and finding himself inside one of the many laboratories of Evil Rick’s lair. 

“ ** _Ricky?_** _”_ Bill’s voice croaked as he called out to the scientist. “ ** _Rick are you here?_** ”

\----------------------------

Evil Rick was lying flat out in the Centre of his darkened lab, a burned out cigarette in one hand and a half empty bottle of whiskey in the other, clutched to his chest as tightly and desperately as a dying lover. He had no idea how long he’d been lying there, but the pain in his lower back told him it had been a number of hours, truthfully he’d lost track of how many, he lost track of so many things these days. He’d spent most of those hours trying to make sense of his feelings, but eventually he’d given up and opted to drown them in alcohol instead. Half a bottle of whiskey later he still felt poisoned by a bitter unrelenting rage that swirled and churned at his very core and if it had been  _just_  that he would have coped  _fine_ , but the sense of loss that accompanied it was palpable and had emptied him out of everything else. It wasn’t just his pride that had been hurt, it was his  _heart._

He hadn’t just lost a 40 year long friendship today, he’d lost far more, far more than he was ever supposed to have in the first place. First the cohabiting, then the proposal, then the monogamy and now adopting a baby, every act taking Bill a step further away, every act feeling like a punch to his guts and a swift spit in his face. Every scrap of space he’d occupied in the demon’s life had shrunk and now those spaces were closing completely and there was nothing he could do but remove himself entirely and seal them over for good. Whether Bill cared to admit it or not, he had slowly been cutting him out and at this stage it felt appropriate to finally wield the knife himself and finish the job. He had told Bill to stay away from him for everyone’s sake, to forget him and to never contact him again. He’d overacted, he’d crossed a line, he’d lost his mind but there was no going back, there was nowhere left to go; Bill had closed all the roads and the only one left was a short stretch of highway that could only lead to him being forgotten as it was traveled. 

The voice that echoed through the lab shattered his introspection and made his stomach instantly lurch;  _Bill_.

**_“Down here.”_ **

\------------------------------

Through the dark overshadow of the dimly lit space, Evil Rick’s voice broke through the black and the first thing Bill could feel was relief wash over him. He hadn’t expected a response- he wasn’t sure he deserved one. No, he was  _definitely_  sure he didn’t deserve one. 

Perhaps this was the first sign that the demon could fix what he had done. But the first stage of grief is denial, as repeated to him by the countless mantras he saw on bookstore posters, the ushers at the funerals of old friends and now by his own conscience, which had suddenly awakened only to scream at him. 

Losing someone who is still alive felt  _much_  worse than losing someone to death.

The demon found his longtime companion stretched out on the floor, the sight of him triggering the sour taste of vomit in his mouth. His stomach was collapsing in on itself, skin breaking out into a cold sweat. Bill had caused this. Bill had caused  _all_ of this. He needed to feel like shit. This is what he earned. 

_Kick me, stab me, shoot me. Make this fucking flesh puppet a corpse and send me back where I belong. Please just fucking anything. I don’t deserve to be here. Fuck I don’t want to be here without you._

When there was no response to his approach, Bill swallowed as he sat on the floor, causing his cotton-dry throat to sting. His gaze lowered to the cold ground, hot amber gaze dimming to blue. The demon couldn’t bear to look at Rick, no matter how much he wanted to punish himself. His voice finally broke the silence, sharp and cracking, messy like radio static. He felt his whole body trembling, unable to steady himself.

“… _I came to tell you that you were right. I’m an embarrassment compared to what I was when you met me……I fucked up.”_

\-----------------------------

“ _You don’t answer to me.”_  he replied flatly and far too hastily to have given his response any proper thought, ‘you won’t change for me’, is what he had really wanted to say. 

More out of habit than purpose he rolled the bottle across the floor towards Bill to offer him a drink. Slowly he sat up, but remained on the floor, standing just didn’t seem like a good idea. Slipping a battered pack of Lucky Strikes out of his pocket he eased one between his lips and lit it, study the glow of the burning end to avoid the burning glow of Bill’s eyes. 

After a few long, deep draws, he finally fostered the courage to look up and properly acknowledge the demon’s presence. Bill looked wretched, just as wretched as Evil Rick felt,  _God,_  he just wanted to hold him, but it was too late, they were beyond that now. 

 _“You shouldn’t have come here.”_  He said softly, directing his gaze back down towards the floor.  _“Christ, I can’t even bear to look at you.”_  The statement was barely a whisper and said more to himself than to Bill. 

Bile started to rise in his throat as he forced down all the appalled accusations he wanted to aim at the demon. What was the point, it wouldn’t change anything; it  _never_  changed anything. 

 _“You…you’re wasting your time Bill, there’s nothing left for you here.”_ He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. _“You took it all, t-took it all and threw it in the fucking trash, I…I don’t want to see you anymore…”_ Instantly the sensation of hopeless defeat which had been slowly settling in over the past few hours took hold and gripped him hard _. “….I can’t, I can’t do this anymore Bill, go…go live your new fucking life, I don’t fit in it, I-I never will.”_

_\-----------------------_

“ ** _No.”_**

Those words had caused a shift in him. It wasn’t anger, it wasn’t even pain. It was _defiance_. The demon’s gaze remained steady on the floor. He could feel the warmth of a white-hot flame dance at his fingertips, burning a hole through his resolve as he spoke through gritted teeth.

“You’re  _goddamn_  right I don’t answer to you. I dug my fucking grave, and I decided I’m going to lie in it like I fucking should.” His amber gaze lifted to bore into Evil Rick, eyes practically alight. “I know how I am.  _You_ know how I am. So if you want me out of your life, you’re going to do it the right way.”

Bill reached into his back pocket and tossed a memory erase gun into his companion’s lap.

“Four trillion years has been longer than anybody should be fucking allowed, and the last 40 years have only been worthwhile because you were there beside me through all the bullshit. I am not going to spend the rest of eternity miserable because I lost you.” He paused, trying to stifle the urge to vomit. “I’m too  _fucking_   ** _weak for it_**.”

The demon sat upright, brow furrowed as he stared so intently at his companion, words dripping from his tongue like venom. “What I’ve fucking become is irreversible. And you pointed it out long before I could see it. I’m not what I was. And I  _hate_  it.”

Bill’s gaze flickered between the gun and Rick, his stern expression never faltering, every word piercing into his heart like barbed wire. 

“I’m in his mind. And this is the one thing that’ll get rid of me for good. One fucking click. And I’m gone.  ** _Do it.”_**

\------------------------

Evil Rick picked up the gun and gently turned it over in his hands, staring at it like he’d never seen a gun before in his entire life. A myriad of emotions passed across his face, each one more fleeting than the next; sadness, pity, guilt, but most predominantly anger; didn’t Bill realize this was just another punch in the guts?

Rising to his feet he placed the gun on the floor and with a hard stomp of his boot cracked it in half. Stooping, he gathered up the broken pieces and threw them back at Bill with a look of utter contempt and disappointment. 

 _“How could you fucking ask me to do that you…you selfish bastard.”_ His voice was low but his tone was furious.  _“How…how could you fucking think I-I could **ever** do that to you?” _

He rubbed his hands over his face with exasperation and for the first time noticed they were shaking.  _“Don’t you ever ask me to do something like that again!”_ He shouted bitterly, his voice filling the expansive room and echoing straight back at him.  _“Why are you punishing me, seriously, what…what the fuck did I even d-do?”_ His voice was cracked with desperation and confusion; he didn’t understand, he felt like he’d  _never_  understand. He wasn’t stupid enough or egotistical enough to imagine he sat at the center of the demon’s life but he’d always felt there was a place reserved for him in it, one that was meant for him, one that he’d  _earned_. 40 years of friendship, but they weren’t  _just friends_ ,  _no_ , they’d never been ‘just friends’ they had been far more and the idea that Bill could think that would be enough for him now had made him feel sick, rejected and used. 

He began to furiously pace the room in an attempt to burn off the rage he could feel beginning to build and distract himself from his need to comfort Bill, a need he entirely resented.  _“I hate this so fucking much, why…why did you do this, why the fuck did you do this to me….to us?”_

_\-------------------------_

The demon shot up to his feet to avoid being hit by the broken pieces of the gun. A hopeless expression crossed his face, as if Rick had just destroyed the only solution they had.  _Wasn’t it the only solution they had?_

 _“You_ **idiot!**  I wanted you to do it because after what I fucking did to you I deserve it!  ** _Look. At. Us._  **Look at what I’ve fucking done, Rick, this fucking mess I’ve made of us  _and_  myself.” Bill’s voice began to crack again as he choked back sobs. 

“You were right, I’m kidding myself. I’m trying to be something I’m not. But you were wrong about one thing- no one fucking changed me. Because I’m still doing exactly what I do best. I’m  _destroying_ **everything**. That’s all I can ever seem to do, because that’s what I was fucking  _born for._ So wouldn’t it just be better for everyone at this point if I was finally  _gone?”_

Fighting the tears that welled in his eyes, the demon looked back to the floor. A sour cocktail of emotions began to consume him, gathering within his chest and swirling violently, as if about to rip open a void from his ribs and suck them both in. 

“There isn’t a reason why… Because I never intended to cut you off. I just never fucking thought of it. It’s my fault and  _I’m sorry_.” He took in a deep, shaky breath, a failed attempt to steady himself. Hell, his whole body was trembling. 

“ _Everything is too fucked for me to handle on my own and I can’t do this without you. I don’t **want**  to do anything without you.” _Bill paused, shaking his head. “ _If you don’t have my back, who does?”_

\--------------------------

 _“Don’t you dare give me this self-pitying bullshit.”_  He replied coldly, “ _We…we’ve always destroyed everything, it…it’s what we do, but never Bill, **never each other**.” _ He walked over to the demon and wrenched the bottle of whiskey from his hand to screw off the lid and down a large quantity. 

 _“You…your back?”_  He stammered angrily,  _“Bill you’ve put together…replaced me with an entire, ever-growing fucking family, they, they have you God Damn back now.”_  The very thought of it twisted his insides and caused a fresh wave of nausea to curl in his stomach. 

 _“You never thought of it?_ ” Of everything Bill had said,  _those_  were the  _worst_ words, _God_ , the sheer neglect of it, his chest ached as he allowed the concept to settle deeply within him. 

 _“Did you ever love…was this all just a…just a fucking game to you, what am I…am I just another fucking Ford…another fucking human plaything to you, is that it…is that what you’re hiding from me, is that why it was so easy to throw…throw it all away?”_ With that he threw the bottle of whiskey against the wall, causing a spectacular cascade of glass shards to deafeningly shatter across the wall and fracture to the floor. 

 _“40 years Bill…40 fucking years and I…I never asked for commitment, I wouldn’t have… I don’t want it, we were always free to pursue other people, we_ **have** _other people, but this, this thing you’re doing,_ _with them, it’s too much, you…it…it’s fucking hurting me and I won’t….I can’t….”_ He covered his hands with his face. _“You honestly have no idea what you’ve put me through the past few months, asking him to marry you and everything else, God, every other fucking thing else, it never…it never stops.”_ He sighed heavily and looked up to meet Bill’s gaze to search his amber eyes for any sign of the man who had baptized him in flame four short decades ago.

_“_ [ _You only thought about yourself.”_ ](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DJlwyNwX4A-0%26spfreload%3D10&t=ZGU4MzgyNTQzNzU5Y2Y1NzUxYWZkZjAxMmJmMDE0Y2Y5NDJhYTI4NixDcXFaZGx0RQ%3D%3D&b=t%3Ae08tys6qmBclck560OCkag&p=http%3A%2F%2Fevilgsanchez.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F145360489677%2Fthe-end-of-all-things&m=1)

\----------------------------

_You only thought about yourself._

The demon’s resolve shattered alongside the glass bottle on the floor. Everything in him was burning in a white hot rage.

_“ **And you fucking didn’t?”**_

Jesus, was he really comparing himself to  _Ford?_  Each word coming out of this man’s mouth only made the fire in Bill’s gut blaze.

“Love. You want to talk about  ** _love?_** _Sure,_ Ricky. We can fucking talk about love. Let’s talk about the fucking fact that you think you’re the only one here with any sort of  _fucking attachment_  all of a sudden.” The demon’s eyes were alight, stepping closer to Rick with every word as they fell from his tongue in a venomous hiss. “You think I would fucking  _be here_  if I didn’t love you? You make me out to be the fucking villain, I know that’s how you want to cope, I know that’s the  _only way_  you know how to cope you piece of shit. But you **_weren’t_**  the only one who gave yourself to someone 40 years ago. You wrapped fucking  _chains_  around my heart, locked it up and threw away the goddamn key.”

Bill stopped in his tracks once he was nose to nose with Rick, amber eyes burning into the other’s gaze. “Of course I fucking  _love you._ But I had to take a step back, because you gave yourself away to someone else and I didn’t want to fucking interfere. You don’t think this is hard for me? You think I’m punishing _you?_ I was trying to control myself, but it’s fucking  _impossible_  to be in control around you.  ** _I can’t fucking do it.”_**

A hand flashed to grip the back of Rick’s neck and forced him into a deep kiss. It was the only thing that seemed to drown every one of his instincts that beckoned for fire. The demon finally pulled away from his companion, brows furrowed as if the stern expression had been etched in stone onto his face.

“ _You’re too addictive, you mad old fool_.”

============================================================

As Bill approached Evil Rick found himself cautiously backing towards the wall, the move feeling strangely reminiscent of the first night they’d met. The demon’s eyes were ablaze, not with violence, but there was definitely anger and he found it hard not to look away and instinctively shield himself from that scorching stare. Bill was right of course, it times of confusion Evil Rick did have a tendency to colour everything in black and white and right now he felt like the  _only_  victim and the suggestion that it was otherwise was met with a harsh glare. If there were chains around Bill’s heart and those chains had kept them tethered together all this time, he wanted to strengthen and multiple them, to protect them from erosion and wrap them  _tighter_. 

Evil Rick’s back collided with the wall when Bill’s feet met with his own, their faces only inches from each other.  _Interfere?_  Why would ever it be interfering; the kid knew the state of play, if anything he’d invited Bill into his relationship with the boy, he certainly hadn’t closed himself down to him. Still, the idea that he had caused Bill any kind of pain sat uncomfortably with him and slowly a small pang of guilt blossomed into a dull constant ache. 

 _“I do think you’re punishing me._ ” He affirmed raising his head to meet the searing heat of Bill’s bright amber eyes.  _“I’ve never asked…I-I’ve never wanted you to control yourself around me.”_ The hand clasping tightly around the back of his head felt like flame and he found himself gasping against the unexpected kiss, which he returned with equal intensity and a heavy heart. 

When it finally broke it felt far too soon and for a moment he could do nothing but stare back at Bill, trying to form his thoughts into something coherent.  _“I’ve missed you.”_  He finally breathed. “ _I don’t…I-I won’t give you up, you can’t make me, stop… **ugh** , **stop trying to make me**.”_

He sighed heavily and wrapped his arms around Bill, holding him tighter than he ever had. “ _Stop pulling yourself in different directions, stop pushing me away, it’s tearing you apart, it…it’s tearing **us**  apart, I’m here, I-I’m right fucking here, I never left.” _Gripping onto the demon’s shoulders he pulled him back to face him.  _“You know how I feel, it hasn’t changed, **I haven’t changed**. _

He slipped his hand around the demon’s wrist and lifted Bill’s hand to smooth it across his face _. “I-I may have a few more wrinkles and a lot more scars Bill, but I-I’m still the awe-stuck blood-stained boy you pulled from that burning bar that told you he’d be by your side **forever**. **”**_

**_\-----------------------_ **

Running his thumb across Evil Rick’s skin elicited a soft smile to spread across the demon’s face. It became wider, fading to a grin, and then to a laugh of equal parts relief and joy.

“You may have some wrinkles and scars, Ricky, but you’re still just as magnificent as the day I met you, you absolutely glorious mad bastard.”

Bill tugged the scientist back into a tight embrace, shutting his eyes and squeezing his thin frame in his arms. “Who was I even fucking kidding, I could never pull myself away from you. Shit, you drive me up the goddamn wall, do you know that?”

Suddenly it was 1977 again. The images in his head flashed back to the night in the quaint London bar with cedar walls that debuted a most beautiful fragrance as they smoldered to ash. It was the same night he had brought back a smitten, reckless boy with wild hazel eyes into his flat to claim him. Bill had been, and still was, absolutely enchanted by his magnetic personality and murderous gaze. Even when he was sent so abruptly back to his own dimension and had to find a vessel to possess, the first thing he had done was arrive at the lair of the one human he had admired, had considered an equal, for so long.

He pulled them apart once more, hands on Evil Rick’s shoulders. “Nothing in the entire damn multiverse can make me give you up. I try and I try and I keep crawling back. There’s no use in trying anymore. If you’re by my side forever, then I’m by yours forever, and even in death.” Another smile danced on his lips. “Because I _know_  I’ll be seeing you in Hell, old man.”

The demon moved to his companion’s side, wrapping an arm across Rick’s shoulders, leading him out of the lab and through the halls of the lair. 

“We’re getting too old for this shit,” he sighed, withdrawing his portal gun. “…Wanna go get wasted?”

\------------------------

The embrace was tight and sorely welcomed and as he settled into it some of the crippling weight he had been carrying slowly started to shift from his shoulders. He needed this, he needed this acknowledgement, he needed this affirmation, he  _needed_  Bill, he  _always_  would. The day they had met he’d suspected immediately that the demon would play some part in his life, but he’d never believed it would be such a large and important part. Nearly losing him had brought him to the brink and he couldn’t let it happen again, he _wouldn’t_ let it happen again.

 _“Stop trying to give me up.”_ He replied softly. _“You…you’re just as fucked up as I am when it comes to this, **to us** , stop…stop trying to kid yourself into thinking it could ever be otherwise.”_

He smiled back at Bill as he watched a grin creep at the corners of the demon’s mouth, it was good to see that wild grin again.  _“Ah, the flames of Hell….as if anything could possibly burn up my soul quite like you do.”_ He laughed lightly, the jovial sound echoing strangely in his own ears as it sharply cut through the silence. 

As Bill’s arm wrapped around him, he leaned his head on the demon’s shoulder as they walked.  _“ **You’re**  getting to old for this shit.”_ He replied with a smirk, digging his elbow against the demons side, their every step now in tandem. 

_“Come on, take me out, fuck…fuck me up, I-I need it, **I need you**.” _

_\------------------------_

**END**

**Author's Note:**

> Following this thread Evil Rick and Bill attempt to continue their relationship, but find themselves constantly colliding because of issues of jealousy and possessiveness and Evil Rick's embittered resentment of Bill's other lover who is now his husband. Evil Rick copes very badly with Bill getting married and for him it becomes the nail in the coffin of their relationship. 
> 
> The two decide to attempt to be friends only and stop sleeping together, they manage to keep this going for around a year, but their friendship is damaged by it, as are they themselves. No threads capture this time period as most of their difficult interactions took place outwith a formal thread. Near the tail end of that year Evil Rick announces his younger lover "Rocker Rick" is now his husband, he tries to convince himself he doesn't need Bill. 
> 
> The thread which takes place after all this is the next in the series, entitled: Big Dark love and should be read next.


End file.
